"The bodhicitta is much more like a sort of higher power – the power of Enlightenment, if you like – which works through you when you are open and receptive. It’s not ‘yours’ in the ordinary sense – not your thought, your idea, your will. In a sense – though even this can be misunderstood – it’s something that takes you over when you are sufficiently ready for that or sufficiently open to that and which as it were works through you: this is the bodhicitta.” - Sangharakshita, Endlessly Fascinating Cry

“Although we have placed the stupa in its historical context, this does not completely answer the question of what a stupa is. We still need to ask ourselves what it represents, what it symbolizes. And the answer to this question is bound up with the symbolism of the five elements.  The five elements are the traditional ones – earth, water, fire, air, and ether or space. However, we must take these terms not literally but symbolically. When we take the five elements symbolically, what do we have in mind? What did the builders of the stupas have in mind?

“I go for Refuge to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. This is what they say at that moment, and clearly it's not just a question of the recitation of a formula. It's the heartfelt response of one's total being to the impact of the truth, even the impact of Reality. One commits oneself to the truth, one surrenders to the truth, one wants to devote one's whole life to the truth.” - Sangharakshita, Levels of Going for Refuge

The bodhicitta is much more like a sort of higher power – the power of Enlightenment, if you like – which works through you when you are open and receptive. It’s not ‘yours’ in the ordinary sense – not your thought, your idea, your will. In a sense – though even this can be misunderstood – it’s something that takes you over when you are sufficiently ready for that or sufficiently open to that and which as it were works through you: this is the bodhicitta.” - Sangharakshita, Endlessly Fascinating Cry

invitation only

“Everyday you have five things to practise: Keep up the effort to be mindful and aware; remain in as positive a state as possible; do not lose sight of your ultimate goal at any time; apply at every level whatever you have realised or discovered at the highest level of your being; do your best for other people, do what you can to help them. This is your spiritual life and this is your spiritual practice.

“There is something about the movement, the Order, and even about me that is not easily definable. There is a touch of something that cannot be buttoned down, something that cannot in the end be defined. Everyone will need to take care of that rather mysterious, indefinable spirit that gives the movement life and energy.”  

Sangharakshita, What is the Western Buddhist Order?

Join us for a week-long Order retreat, rejoicing in the depths and beauty of the Welsh valley that has supported Tiratanaloka for so long.

During this historic Order retreat, we'll immerse ourselves in the land and the lineage of Tiratanaloka with outdoor rituals, pujas, meditation and periods of silence together focussing on gratitude and reflecting on what we can be grateful for in our lives.

There'll be time to relax, connect more deeply to the land, to our precious teachers and the lineage of women that have gone before us and the women who will follow us on the path.

“There is something about the movement, the Order, and even about me that is not easily definable. There is a touch of something that cannot be buttoned down, something that cannot in the end be defined. Everyone will need to take care of that rather mysterious, indefinable spirit that gives the movement life and energy.”  

Sangharakshita, What is the Western Buddhist Order?